Now that Stuart is at least alright, I need to unwind a bit before going back to my final-exams-marking marathon....
I thought there is so much wisdom in this:
Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to us.
– Leon Trotsky
When the first grey hair appears on our head, it is a critical juncture in life. We go to the mirror with a sinking feeling of dread and try to pluck out the evidence – one here, two there. But the more we pull out, the more seem to come in.
I tease my friends by asking which of them would like to relive their adolescence. It always brings a groan. Youth has a lot to offer, but so does the experience of age. In India we have a joke about a man going to a barber and asking, “Do you have anything for grey hair?” “Yes,” the barber says, “respect.” Just because we don’t have wrinkles or a grey hair, we are not necessarily alive in the fullest sense of the word. Real living comes from making a contribution to life.
This is the paradox of life: when we cling to the body, it loses its beauty. But when we do not cling to the body – and use it as an instrument given us to serve others – it glows with a special beauty, as we can see from the lives of many great saints and mystics. When our consciousness becomes pure, even the body begins to reflect its light.
It talks about real living coming from serving others, making a contribution to life and society. You know, in today's materialistic society, people often measure the worth of another by how much money/property/assets he has. But they forget that the true worth of a person is actually measured by how much he is worth AFTER he loses all his money. What is there left of him when that happens? That's how much he is worth!
So, let's do some charity and leave something valuable behind. It could be saving just one stray cat or dog, but it is STILL leaving something valuable behind, call it a "heartprint" if you will.
Leave your heartprints behind each day....and they will always glow with beauty in the hearts and minds of those whose lives you have touched and changed.
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